The Township Of Tinicum.

lowing year, and John T. Huddell in 1872. In 1873 and 1874 license was prohibited outside of Chester, but on the repeal of the local option law, David Wells was licensed in 1875 and 1876.

In 1876, William Miller made application for a hotel license at the Riverview Hotel, the new house Pepper built, which was granted him, and annually thereafter until the present time at the same house.

In 1877, David Wells obtained license for that year at the old Tinicum Hotel, and in 1878 he was succeeded by C. H. Newhall, and he in turn, in 1879, by Daniel Birmingham. William H. Reed kept the old tavern in 1880-81, to give place to James E. Ford in 1882. Ford kept the house one year, and in 1883, Peter Goff, the present landlord of the old Tinicum Tavern, succeeded to the business.

Aston Township.

Dr. Smith states that "this township probably derived its name from Aston, a village of Berkshire, England . . . . In 1686, Edward Carter, then a resident in what is now Aston, was appointed constable for Northley."¹ The opinions of all our local historians agree in that the name of Northley was applied to Aston previous to 1687 to designate that locality from other municipal districts in the county. Edward Carter doubtless gave the name to the township, as was customary in those early days, in remembrance of his old home beyond the sea, for he came from Aston, in the parish of Bampton, Oxfordshire, England, emigrating to the province in 1682.² He first located in Chichester, but subsequently removed to his tract of two hundred and fifty acres in Aston, and was appointed the first constable of that township, which assumed its present name the following year (1688), when John Neal (Nields) was appointed to the like office for the township of Aston, which is the first mention of that name in our record, and is properly accepted as the date at which the municipal district was established. Carter was a prominent man in the early days of the province, having served as member of the Assembly in 1688, as trustee of Chester Meeting the year previous, and Chichester and Concord Monthly Meeting was regularly held at his house until 1703, about which time he is believed to have died.³ Carter was not the first settler in Aston, for on Oct. 8, 1682, Charles Ashcom, the surveyor, returned five hundred acres of land laid out for John Dutton, on the west of Upland Creek, beginning at "Nathaniel Evans' corner tree," and so unto the woods;" and tradition says that John Dutton settled on the land and built a house in the meadow, near the creek, but, being disturbed by floods, he removed a few rods farther back, and erected his dwelling on a large rock near a small rivulet. A portion of this rock may still be seen near the road from Rockdale to Village Green, the remainder having been removed for building purposes some years ago."⁴ It is also stated that the family of John Dutton followed an Indian path when they moved from Chester to the back settlement.⁵

⁵ Ib., p. 37.

Even before Dutton William Woodmansey took up a hundred acres at the southeastern end of the township, on Chester Creek - the present Bridgewater - in 1680, naming his home in the forest "Harold," and there the society of Friends frequently held their meetings. He was one of Governor Markham's Council, having been several years in the colony before the charter to Penn, coming a passenger in the ship "Kent" in 1677. Joseph Richards, who never lived in the township, in August, 1682, had surveyed to him three hundred acres in the southern part of the township, including the site of Village Green. After his death it was divided among his children, and on a portion of this tract of land, after it passed into the possession of the Barnard family, Gen. Isaac D. Barnard, the only Delaware countian who has been United States senator from Pennsylvania, was born in 1791. An intervening strip of land, between Richard's tract and Chichester and Chester townships' lines, containing one hundred and twenty-five acres, was surveyed to Anthony Weaver in February, 1681, and to this estate he gave the name Northley, by which Aston was first known. Dr. Smith relates that Anthony, being convinced that he wanted a wife, and as the women were generally Quakeresses, he whispered his convictions to Ann Richards, of Chichester, which resulted in the couple coming to meeting where the matter was discussed, and, although Anthony honestly "owned himself to be none of us," the marriage was permitted to proceed.⁶ As usual in such cases, the wife's religious predilections soon became those of her husband.

Among the early settlers of Aston was Thomas Mercer, who took up a hundred acres of land on Chester Creek, near Dutton's mills, and Nathaniel Evans, in October, 1682, had surveyed to him a tract of three hundred acres, oddly shaped so as to have the largest part extend along the creek from Elwood Tyson's land to within a short distance of the Presbyterian Ford, and yet stretching west across the entire township. Above the Dutton tract, John Neild, in 1682, had surveyed to him two hundred and fifty acres, which included the site of the present village of Rockdale, and following the creek to West Branch continued along the latter stream until at Llewellyn